I Reject the villain’s ending.

Chapter 5

After a long explanation of the situation, Mei’s round eyes narrowed even more.

‘So you came to apologize to me?’

The word ‘apology’ came out of my mouth with such surprise that Mei stammered.

‘I’m sorry, Mei. I threw the jewelry box put a big scar on your forehead and kicked you out of the temple.’

‘Oh, no, saint. Don’t bow down to a lowly thing like me!’

‘It was my fault, I’m so sorry, and you don’t have to accept my apology.’

Mei sulked even more when the children apologized to her, her dress and coat covered in dirt and her hair in a ponytail.

‘I was the one who was in the wrong in the first place because when I was combing the saint’s hair, I used a knife comb to cut her hair…….’

Mei recounted the incident with a shudder.

‘It has this little blade and comb together, and it’s supposed to cut your hair when you comb it. I was confused because it was my first time getting your hair done that day, so I accidentally cut myself…….’

Speechless, Mei turned to me with a red face.

‘I was fired because I cut off half of your hair! My dismissal was justified! I’m so sorry, Saint!’

‘Uh, no, that’s not…….’

‘What, did your sister do something wrong first?’

‘Humm. we didn’t even realize it, we just hit her because we thought she was bullying you!’

The kids who were holding up their hands for punishment stopped talking amongst themselves.

They looked at me and Iros, then at each other.

I’ve apologized to a lot of people, but this was the first time I’d ever done so, so Iros and I looked at each other in embarrassment.

‘You didn’t do your research, did you?’

‘I’m sorry, but I must have missed something in my research.’

‘I can’t believe it.’

Somehow, Mei’s eyes held more regret than hatred as she looked at me, or maybe it was something like that.

I can’t remember exactly.

‘Ah. That’s why you cut your hair last year.’

‘Huh?’

‘Didn’t you have a haircut in the middle of the year?’

‘Aha. That time.’

I don’t remember, but when I thought about the time I cut my hair, it immediately came to mind.

‘Mei, is that why I asked you where half of my hair went?’

‘Yes, yes. That’s right.’

‘I remember now.’

My memory was a jumble, probably because I had lost my cool.

But I’m glad I did. I wasn’t fired for throwing a jewelry box at an innocent person.

‘No, no, no, that’s not a good thing, someone got hurt!

I shook my head in the all-too-obvious Sierra style of thinking and sat up.

‘Why, what’s wrong?’

‘I got into a little fight with my inner bitch.’

‘What?’

I walked over to Mei, who had a puzzled look on her face and tousled her bangs.

It revealed a dark scar in the shape of a lightning bolt.

‘I’m sorry, I just got it healed.’

‘Healed it? Ah!’

Mei’s forehead glowed with a warm golden holy power, and the scar quickly disappeared and white new skin sprouted.

‘Wow. It’s warm, so warm. Holy power, it’s like sunshine.’

Mei closed her eyes and muttered.

‘Don’t worry, the new skin will be whiter than your original color for a while, but in time, it will resemble the color of your skin now.’

‘Thank you, Saint!’

My conscience prickled as I looked at the smiling Mei. She’s injured because of me, and she can’t get a job because of that scar, and yet she’s smiling and grateful.

‘I heard your mum is sick. Do you mind if I take a look? If it’s something I can cure, I’ll cure her.’

‘Huh. Are you sure, saint?’

‘Yes.’

‘My family has no money and we are commoners, but is that okay?’

‘Yes.’

‘Black, suck.’

Tears instantly filled Mei’s eyes, and she covered her mouth, letting them fall.

This time, her siblings didn’t rush over to ask why my sister cried. Instead, she clutched the hem of my dress and looked up.

‘Auntie, are you going to cure my mum?’

‘Really? Auntie, because you’re a saint, you can make my mum not get sick?’

‘Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, ah, …….’

I was dazed by the unfamiliar title, then nodded at the pleading eyes of the children.

‘Yes. I’ll take care of her.’

‘Uh, Mum’s in the master bedroom over there!’

Guided by Mei, I used my divine power to find a middle-aged woman sleeping helplessly on the bed.

Her lifeless face came alive and her breathing evened out. Mei, Mei, and Iros left the room, careful not to wake her.

Outside the room, children waited nervously for us. I smiled at them.

‘Mum’s going to be okay now.’

‘Whoa!’

‘Guys, shhh! Shhh!’

‘Hah! Hee-hee-hee.’

We left the house, leaving behind the children who covered their mouths and rejoiced to their hearts’ content.

‘Mei, if you want to be reinstated, come to the temple. If you want to do something else, you don’t have to come. And this is an apology for my behavior.’

‘The gold coins, Saint, this is too much!’

‘It’s my heart, so take it. You have many younger sisters.’

‘But…….’

‘When it’s given to you, just take it. In times like this, you say thank you and take it.’

‘Thank you, saint.’

With the money bag in hand and Mei’s head bowed, we boarded the carriage.

As we drove away, I smirked at Mei and the ramshackle house.

‘Somehow, I think I’ll see Mei again.’

‘Yes. I’m sure she’ll be back sooner or later.’

Iros and I both smirked, remembering the freckled, vivacious Mei.

‘Oh. By the way, isn’t it a bit much to go around apologizing in this outfit?’

‘That’s as far as I’m going to take you today, and I think you’d better come back to the temple in something more modest next time.’

I nodded at Iros’s words, looking down at the lacey hem of her petticoat.

‘I agree, I feel so uncomfortable and useless in this dress, haha.’

‘Are you sleepy?’

‘A little.’

‘Then go to sleep. I’ll lend you my leg.’

‘You said earlier not to lie down in the carriage, it’s dangerous.’

‘It’s okay, if you feel like you’re going to fall, I’ll catch you.’

I meekly slid into the seat next to him and lay down with my leg across his.

My ears and cheeks nuzzled against his hard, thick thighs, but as soon as I lay down, I dozed off.

‘Pink, tell me about the old days.’

‘You mean the old days?’

‘Mmm.’

I mumbled out of habit. Whenever I invited Iros into my bedroom, I would always ask him to tell me stories.

Iros patted my arm, his eyes blinking lazily in sleep.

‘I don’t have any stories for you, but do you want me to tell you mine?’

‘Sure. Anything.’

Come to think of it, I’d never heard Iros’s story. I hadn’t asked, and it wasn’t his nature to speak first.

A low, soothing voice began to speak. The content was anything but calm.

‘I was a slave, captured from the Duchy of Halt.’

It seemed like a waste of time to start.

Whether it was or not, Iros spoke as if it were someone else’s story.

‘My parents sold me because I was fair, and they said I’d go to a noble house, where they’d have ladies and gentlemen of honor and peculiar hobbies.’

It wasn’t exactly the kind of old tale you’d tell a sleeper, but I listened to his words as they flowed out of him in silence.

‘Now that I think about it, my family was pretty poor, but they had a lot of kids, so it was worth it to sell me, the youngest, to put paste in my mouth, so I was sold.’

‘…….’

It was not a story to be told in a calm voice, and certainly not one to be heard with a grim face.

‘My brothers and sisters worked and earned every penny they could, and I was too young and useless to be of any use to them, so in a way, it was only fair.’

‘Still, it’s sad.’

‘Isn’t it?’

‘Yes. Sad.’

But unlike my sadness, it was quite common in this world for parents to sell their children. Poor commoners needed to make ends meet.

It was a wonder that people like Mei’s could survive together, even if they were too poor to put glue in their mouths.

‘One cold, snowy day, I was sold to a slave trader for two silver coins and brought to the Cyanine Empire slave auction house. I didn’t want to be sold as a pacifier, so I ran away.’

‘You must have been scared.’

‘A fourteen-year-old boy, shivering with fear and cold, when I finally ran into a girl in an alleyway I’d taken cover in. A very ill-tempered, arrogant, cheap-’

‘That was me?’

‘Yes. That’s how the saint picked me up.’

I closed my eyes and remembered the first time I’d glimpsed the dirty alleyway.

There, in that cold, snowy alley, was a boy with shackles on his feet.

I looked him in the eye and said, unimpressed.

‘An escaped slave.

Iros, who was almost like a wild beast in his current state of calm, said, his thorns standing upright.

‘Fuck off. On the subject of a well-bred, well-fed, well-clothed, well-paid girl who’s never been sold.’

‘You wouldn’t have said that to me when I was rescued from the Earl of Elgraton a few months ago,’ I said to Iros, thinking to myself.

‘You’ve got a mouth, and I’ll have you anyway.’

‘With those words, the little girl, her pale blond hair combed and braided, walked away without looking back.’

‘What a cavalier master.’

‘Do you know cavalier?’

Iros gave a small laugh.

Young and fierce, he scrambled to his feet and followed me, pausing to watch as the bustling people knelt and prostrated themselves to greet me, then followed again.

I did not look back once to see if he was following well until we reached the temple carriage, and he too asked no questions, only stood alert.

Still, he followed me all the way.

As I climbed into the carriage, holding the priest’s hand, I said outright.

‘That’s mine now, come with me.

From then on, I think Iros thought he belonged to me.

He had the eyes of a wary beast and was very good at following a subject.

‘Yes? But, Saint. How can you have a slave in your carriage with you…….’

‘Put him in. I’ll make you say it twice.

‘Burn it. Don’t make him say it twice. I’ll rip out your tongue.’

‘Oh, I see.’

With that, I picked up Iros. Our conversation during the carriage ride to the temple was simple.

‘Your name.

Iros, wary, crouched down and answered.

‘Elijah.

After that, he never asked me how I came to be enslaved or why I ran away, nor did he make eye contact.

‘Airos’ was his baptismal name in the temple, and his original name, ‘Elijah’, was tacked on like a surname, so his name became ‘Airos Elijah’.

I just called him Pink, though.

‘Saint, are you asleep?’

‘Yes.’

I replied softly, lulled to sleep by the gentle touch of his arm and the stroking of his hair.

Suddenly, I wondered. Why had Iros killed me in the novels I’d read in my previous life?

He seems so cherished, so incapable of rebellion or betrayal.

His touch is so careful, so downy, and gentle.

In the novels, the only description of the Guardians is that the sword led them all and brought the saint down.

But I felt like Iros would stand by me, even if I were to destroy an entire country.

‘Why on earth did you kill me?

The question lingered in my mouth, unspoken, and then disappeared. His breathing evened out to a wheeze and his thoughts drifted through the darkness and he drifted off to sleep.